Affiliation:
1. John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Harvard University Cambridge MA 02138 USA
2. Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering Harvard University Cambridge MA 02138 USA
Abstract
AbstractAn integrated design, modeling, and multi‐material 3D printing platform for fabricating liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) lattices in both homogeneous and heterogeneous layouts with spatially programmable nematic director order and local composition is reported. Depending on their compositional topology, these lattices exhibit different reversible shape‐morphing transformations upon cycling above and below their respective nematic‐to‐isotropic transition temperatures. Further, it is shown that there is good agreement between their experimentally observed deformation response and model predictions for all LCE lattice designs evaluated. Lastly, an inverse design model is established and the ability to print LCE lattices with the predicted deformation behavior is demonstrated. This work opens new avenues for creating architected LCE lattices that may find potential application in energy‐dissipating structures, microfluidic pumping, mechanical logic, and soft robotics.
Funder
National Science Foundation
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Subject
Mechanical Engineering,Mechanics of Materials,General Materials Science